Conventional gas-fired grills consist of a main grill compartment containing a gas burner positioned beneath a fire grate which supports briquettes such as lava rocks. A cooking grid on which food to be grilled is suspended above the briquettes, and heat from the burning gas is transferred to the briquettes which provides radiant heat for cooking food on the grid. Cooking methods which require heating foods in a container, such as a pot or pan, cannot practically be carried out using a conventional grill because efficient use of those methods require that the gas flame be close to or in contact with the pot or pan.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to provide cooking apparatus which combines the features of grills and conventional cookers. See, for example, the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,524,751 to Hoglund which describes a portable camp stove having a grill section and a gas burner section; U.S. Pat. No. D293,067 to Stephen, et al., showing a design for a gas-fired barbecue grill having a gas-fired side burner; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,886,045 to Ducate, Jr., et al., disclosing a detachable side cooker apparatus for a gas-fired grill.
While those prior art grills do provide means for simultaneously carrying out both a grilling operation and a pot or pan cooking operation, an improved arrangement for attaching an auxiliary burner to a gas-fired grill is desirable.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of this invention to provide a new and improved side burner having an articulating grid member which allows for a low-profile when the lid of the side burner is closed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a side burner which produces a symmetrical appearance when attached to the barbecue grill which often has a flat side table on the opposite side of the grill compartment.
Yet an additional object of the present invention is to provide a side burner that allows the barbecue grill to which it is attached to be placed or stored in a more confined space than barbecue grills having conventional side burners.